A Terrible Usability Experience

The phone system that we use at CWS has a useful feature that sends voicemails to us by email in the form of attached WAV files. Since Outlook 2007 has the ability to preview certain types of attachments within the email window (so that you don't have to launch a separate application), I wanted to see if it was possible to do that with our voicemail files.

When clicking the attachment, I see a message like this:


I recalled having downloaded a previewer for PDF files in the past, so I thought I would see if there was one available for WAV files, clicking the link that said "Browse for previewers online."


Now I'm a bit confused. This page seems to be about Outlook's preview capability in general, not a place to download anything. The heading at the bottom of the page seems promising, but the only link offered has to do with XPS files. I'm not sure what those are, but it doesn't seem likely to offer what I'm looking for. I'll try the other link at the bottom of the page for "more information on attachment previewing."


This page doesn't actually have anything to do with previewing. It's about attachments in general. Back to the original page.


I'll try the link for XPS documents; maybe it will take me to a more useful part of the site. Interestingly, the page is also now serving a banner ad for a product named XPS that I'm pretty sure is completely unrelated.


This doesn't look helpful. At least I know what XPS stands for now, but I still have no idea what it actually is -- there's nothing on the page to explain that. I'll fall back on searching the site with the term "previewer."


No results? What about the page I just came from entitled "File Previewers for Outlook?" It used the word "previewer" at least ten times. Even though that page was clearly labeled as "Office Marketplace," I'll try the link that expands my search to "All of Office Online."


This looks promising. "Find attachment previewers" is exactly what I want to do.


Unfortunately, this expectation is shattered once again. The only portion of this page which deals with previewers other than those built into Outlook is at the bottom in a vague reference to "third-party software vendors." Having reached yet another dead end, I abandon the quest.

This experience serves to reinforce some important principles of usability on the Web:

1. Writing should be clear and concise at all times.
2. Links should set accurate expectations about the content they reference.
3. When search tools are used, they need to work well.
4. Users arriving at a page through a search result may not see it in the context of surrounding pages, so it's important that content make sense on its own, or at least link to related text. Always define acronyms and jargon.

Above all, it's important to remember that I am not the audience. Developers and site owners alike are apt to present information that doesn't make sense to end users because their own familarity with the content blinds them to the questions others are asking. As in most areas of business, providing value on the Web hinges on effective communication.